Great Lakes Wire

Congressional Democrats want to remove congressional redistricting from the states and turn the job over to independent, bipartisan panels.

That hasn’t worked too well in Michigan, says Ken Braun, a senior investigative researcher with the Capital Research Center.

“Michigan’s new and supposedly ‘independent’ legislative redistricting commission has begun to resemble a bad TV sitcom,” Braun writes. “Each episode of the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission show features the hapless antics of the 13 randomly selected (and well-compensated) commissioners as they attempt to fulfill a very serious responsibility while enduring the gentle pressure of effectively zero accountability.”

Braun alleges that two of a group of five on the commission, Anthony Eid and Rebecca Szetela, who are supposed to be non-aligned independents are actually left-wing partisans. Both claimed non-affiliation with any political party but Eid, according to Washington Free Beacon report, declared himself in 2016 as “proud to live in a state that voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary.”

Eid has also endorsed then-Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) for chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Szetela, the Free Beacon claims, has donated to numerous Democratic candidates and committees in Michigan and to the campaign of former Washington governor Christine Gregoire (D).  

This holds no shock value for Braun.  

“This comes as no surprise to those who have followed how the redistricting commission was recklessly nailed into the Michigan Constitution,” he writes. “This deed was done with the assistance of $13.9 million in outside spending by partisan Democratic donors such as Arabella Advisors, the National Redistricting Action Fund, and the National Education Association.”

Braun also alleges that the commission is being sued for adopting a schedule that will have it miss critical deadlines, and that some members habitually miss meetings, but enough were present to vote to increase their salaries for their part-time work from $39,825 to $55,755.

“Every other official in state government is either a directly elected representative of the people or answers directly to one or more of those elected officials,” Braun writes. “The redistricting commissioners behave as if they have been given unaccountable and undemocratic political power because that’s exactly what has happened.”

The Washington Free Beacon website is bankrolled by conservative political activist Paul Singer, according to Source Watch.

The Associated Press reports that "Republicans aggressively gerrymandered" maps in Michigan in 2010 and Democrats introduced a ballot measure in 2018 to create the nonpartisan commission.